Lanterna Rally

Author: Daniel Brinton

Publisher:

Published: 2018-05-03

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 9781718674035

Now we can understand what Plato meant when he said that the right aim ofliving should stand out of relation to pleasure or pain. He had in mind these otheractivities which give in some natures an intenser sense to self-consciousness thanany mere nerve reaction. The ancient ideal was the greatness of the individual, therichness of his imagination, the reach of his intellect, the strength of his will, thefirmness of his friendship, the devotion of his patriotism, the singleness of his lifeand purpose in some noble aim. This it was that floated before the intellectualvision of Plato and led him to scorn the pleasures of the sense and the charms oftranquillity.Let us applaud him; for we moderns are not ignorant of the luxury of toil and thejoy of strong endeavor; we too, like Othello, "do agnize an alacrity for hardness;"with Seneca we can say, "Res severa est verum gaudium." But we hold it needlessand unwise to leave any sunny field uncultured on whose soil may be trained tobloom the fragrant flower of pleasure.The yearning for joy is a cry of nature which can never be stifled. Give heed to itand obey it. It calls you to wider horizons, to warmer sympathies, to a fuller growth,to a completer development. It holds the secret of Evolution. It is the incessantprompter to a higher form of existence. Biologists have discovered that theavoidance of painful and the search for pleasurable sensations are the firstprinciples of organic animal life, and are those which have developed the amoebainto the man. In him, this general consciousness has blossomed into Selfconsciousness,and to this he owes all the growth of his higher nature, hisessentially human powers. To the extent that this is brought into harmony with thesum of his faculties and with his surroundings, he wins that something greater thanpleasure which we call happiness. From the culture of this, if from any source, hemust look for the advent of those new spirit-powers which more fortunategenerations in the hereafter may enjoy. Who knows but those, our dear children ofafter days, may gain a still higher form of consciousness, one through which theywill be brought into harmony with the perfect working of the Cosmos, and theancient fable be realized, of men who walked the earth as gods?